Can Cardiff City boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer solve the great footballing enigma that is Kenwyne Jones?

Kenwyne Jones wasn’t the knight in shinning armour we were hoping for (Picture: AP Photo)

In January, once the dust had settled on Cardiff City’s abrupt removal of Malky Mackay, all eyes were on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to see who he would bring in to lead Cardiff City’s survival bid.

He brought in Kenwyne Jones.

Don’t get me wrong, he is a big strong forward, has scored a reasonable amount of goals wherever he has gone, but there’s always been a theme with Kenwyne, and not just that he likes playing for teams in the Premier League that play in red and white.

At Southampton, Sunderland and Stoke City, he scored in bursts but managers seemed to lose faith in him.

From the outside looking in, I’ve always been puzzled by Kenwyne’s trouble to get into teams and stay there. He always seemed to be someone who you could rely on for a goal here and there, but he would play a few games, and the managers would grow tired of his relaxed attitude and drop him.

Last season I could completely understand why that was the case. After making an instant impact by scoring against Norwich City, which in all fairness was a clumsy bundled effort that if I remember rightly came off his knee, he didn’t score again all season.

He didn’t seem particularly bothered if he was playing, or if he was on the bench. That might not be the case, but perception is everything and if you don’t look like you are trying hard it doesn’t go down well and it certainly doesn’t go down well with the Cardiff City fans.

Against Yeovil, he had the good natured but yet cruel mocking chant of ‘if Kenwyne scores, we’re on the pitch’ which has only been reserved for the likes of Jon Parkin and Eddie Johnson in recent memory. He scored two goals, and they weren’t bad ones. The first was a ball fired across the box at a speed that players with less ability would have missed or got too much contact on the ball. His second was an individual effort which also showed great attacking ability.

However, we also saw the other side of Kenwyne. He had been on the pitch for six minutes, and Yeovil had a corner. City cleared the ball and went on a counter attack. By the time the keeper was getting ready to take the goal kick, Kenwyne had only just reached the half way line.

Any fan of Southampton, Sunderland and Stoke City I’m sure will read the previous two paragraphs and say that sums up the man.

As we left the ground, I overheard two City fans say, well Kenwyne is a cert to start at Blackburn after scoring two goals. After the lazy performance with greatness sprinkled in, it’s still not enough to justify his reported £38,000 a week wage as far as I’m concerned.